Reminds me of a classic Nile Red video where he recreates the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, which looks somewhat similar though I don't know enough chemistry to say if they're actually related reactions.
this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
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woahdude
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I'll make sure to look into it and tell you what the differences are. The patterns definetly look similar to the "wave" or "spirals" preset from my video
Hey ! I (superficially) looked up the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction and can confirm it is related to the Gray-Scott model.
The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction involves an autocatalytic reaction and chemical species diffusing at different rates, just like in the Gray-Scott model. The main differences are related to constraints of doing actual chemistry instead of simulating it :
- The speed constant is (roughly) fixed for any given reaction (and temperature). Scientists cannot tune speed constants like I did in the simulation
- In the simulation, we constantly add some "food" and remove some catalyst. In an actual chemical reactor, there must be an process to achieve this. A real world implementation of the Gray-Scott model would probably use something like a semi-permeable membrane above/below the petri dish. In the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, it is other chemical reactions that ensure "food" gets replenished and the catalyst gets consumed
How very cool! Thanks for doing the research and reporting back! I love seeing such a clear and beautiful example of two models, one virtual, sharing emergent properties and behaviors.